Restless Virgins (2013) Vanessa Marano, Max Lloyd-Jones, Charlie Carver, Jedidiah Goodacre, Zach Martin, Rami Kahlon Movie Review

Restless Virgins (2013)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Vanessa Marano in Restless Virgins (2013)

The Class System

Sutton is a top prep school where the children of the rich and prominent go on their way to top careers, thanks to their parent's various connections. But whilst there are the elite at Sutton there are also those who have not had such gifted up-bringings, one of which is Emily (Vanessa Marano - The Brooke Ellison Story), a hard working student who has a bit of a crush on Lucas (Max Lloyd-Jones - Secrets in the Attic), who is one of those who hangs out with the elite crowd. One of the traditions at Sutton is that the graduating upperclassmen find something to pass on to the next generation of students with each year a chance to out do the previous year's efforts. Led by Dylan (Charlie Carver), this year's graduating upperclassmen from the Lacrosse team decide to make a sex tape involving each of them having sex with one girl in the locker room. But when the sex tape becomes public knowledge it leads to Emily and Lucas having to chose what sides they are on.

First things first and "Restless Virgins" is based on a true story which I know nothing about and so can't say how true to the truth this made for TV drama sticks. But that leads me to the second thing and "Restless Virgins" is a made for TV movie which feels like it has been made with an attempt to be clean entertainment. As such you have this huge conflict going on where you have teenagers and sex tapes yet people say "what the F" rather than actually swearing which makes it feel less than true to real life. In fact the dialogue through out "Restless Virgins" feels like it has been written by adults who have no idea how teenagers talk to each other and instead have written a script of how they would hope teenagers would speak with the sort of politeness and vocabulary which comes across as false.

Restless Virgins (2013)

But if you can get past the frankly terrible dialogue the storyline of a group of privileged teens who think because of who they are and who their parents are, are untouchable is a good one. But at the same time it is not a new one as I can think of a half a dozen other made for TV movies which cover a school where those who think they are untouchable over step the mark and find themselves in trouble and trying to use their power and privilege to crush their problems. And just as typical is the whole aspect of one of the cool kids being a good kid who has to decide between doing what is right or standing by the cool kids. Basically "Restless Virgins" feels like they have taken a true story and fitted in to a formula they hadn't used since the last true story about a prep school/ college or high school.

Because "Restless Virgins" feels like it is shackled by a manifesto of trying to be clean it has to be said that those playing the main roles struggle to be believable. It is simply down to the false nature of the dialogue that Vanessa Marano, Max Lloyd-Jones and Charlie Carver never really convince as being normal teenagers. In fairness Charlie Carver does quite a nice job of coming across as arrogant and a privileged bully but also looks like he has had to shave between every take to hide the fact he wasn't a teen when this was made.

What this all boils down to is that whilst "Restless Virgins" is based on a true story it feels like a typical made for TV drama based on a true teen story. Sadly it feels like it has been forced to fit a formula and has been written by someone who either doesn't know how teenagers talk or has been told to try and keep it clean.


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